Investigation found deputies failed to check on inmate as frequently as they should have

By Mitchell Byars

Staff Writer

Posted:
07/22/2016 07:11:07 PM MDT

Updated:
07/22/2016 08:56:36 PM MDT

Stephanie Anderson (Courtesy photo)

The investigation into an inmate's death at the Boulder County Jail revealed that multiple prisoners accused a sheriff's deputy of responding to her pleas for help by saying "No hablo ingles" — but investigators accepted his explanation that he made that statement to a different inmate.

The Boulder County Sheriff's Office on Friday released a 156-page report detailing an investigation that included interviews with 80 witnesses in the death of Stephanie Anderson at the jail in May.

They also released hours of silent video surveillance footage filmed in the common area outside Anderson's cell.

Anderson, 29, of Denver, was found unresponsive in her cell on May 27, and efforts to revive her failed. The Boulder County Coroner's Office this week ruled she died of "hypertensive cardiovascular disease with other significant conditions listed as obesity."

According to the report, multiple inmates claimed the deputy, identified as Kenneth Heck, said something to the effect of "No hablo ingles" — Spanish for "I don't speak English" — to Anderson when she asked for help several hours before her death.

Heck admitted to investigators that he made the statement, but said he was actually responding to whining from Nicole Genova, an inmate in the cell next to Anderson's who was described by both jail staff and fellow inmates as being perpetually loud and disruptive.

Video surveillance footage released by the sheriff's office also shows Heck facing Genova's cell and not Anderson's when it is believed he made those statements. There is no audio on the jail's surveillance video.

"There's nothing to really contradict that," Sheriff Joe Pelle said Friday. "He admitted to making (the statement) and told us who he was making it to."

Pelle said that while there were multiple inmates who were convinced Heck made that statement to Anderson, he said many of them appeared to be repeating things they heard from other prisoners.

He said investigators also concluded some of the inmates would not have been able to see or hear the interactions the way they described them.

Heck — who several inmates said was usually "very good" at responding to inmates who had issues — was not the deputy assigned to that area, and was filling in for a deputy on her lunch break.

He told investigators he didn't want to respond to Genova's pleas for help because he didn't want to contradict anything the other deputy already had said. He also was not the deputy who ended up finding Anderson unresponsive in her cell.

Pelle said the fact that Heck made that type of dismissive statement toward an inmate asking for help was concerning. He said an internal investigation is being conducted into several aspects that arose during the probe of Anderson's death. He would not comment on any individual discipline.

"There were several issues that came to light as a result of the investigation," Pelle said. "We'll look into all of those things internally and try to correct problems."

More frequent checks

According to the report, Anderson was arrested in Superior on May 26 after she reportedly was caught shoplifting at a beauty store and also was found to have warrants for her arrest out of Adams County.

About eight hours after arriving at the jail, Anderson — who had a "very bad heart," according to her family, and told people at the jail she was coming off of painkillers — complained of chest pain and was taken to Boulder Community Health's Foothills Hospital.

Surveillance footage shows paramedics wheeling the body of Stephanie Anderson into the loading bay of the Boulder County Jail, where she was pronounced dead on May 27. (Boulder County Sheriff's Office)

But at the hospital, Anderson refused to cooperate with doctors and declined the medical treatment she was prescribed, instead asking for Vicodin, according to the sheriff's report.

Multiple staff members on scene believed she was not in as much pain as she claimed, and thought she was trying to obtain narcotics.

When Anderson continued to refuse treatment, she was taken back to the jail. Several inmates later said she was sick throughout the night, and vomit was later found in her cell. During the night, multiple inmates said Anderson's cell neighbor was being loud and keeping Anderson up.

Deputies checking on Anderson the next day told investigators that at no point did she ask for help or indicate she was having medical issues. Heck relieved the normal deputy in that area, Deb Clem, between noon and 1 p.m., and said he saw Anderson sleeping in her room.

After that, a deputy arrived to take Anderson to her afternoon court hearing, but found her sleeping and snoring. Upon hearing that she had been up all night sick and arguing with Genova, the deputy elected to let her sleep and rescheduled her hearing.

Several hours later, at 3:48 p.m., Clem checked in and noticed Anderson was on her bed with her back turned to the door. She did not respond to verbal commands, so Clem paged to have the cell door opened.

Once inside, Clem could not get Anderson to respond, so she called for medical assistance, according to the report.

Responders can be seen on the video taking Anderson out of her cell to try to resuscitate her. After that failed, they are seeing wheeling her on a gurney out to an ambulance parked in the loading area, where she was pronounced dead.

According to a summary, investigators could not definitely conclude that deputies disregarded a request from Anderson for help, but "believe it was unlikely." However, the report did say that Anderson should have been checked on more often. According to the report and the surveillance footage, the check on Anderson prior to her death came at 1:20 p.m. — more than two hours before she was found unresponsive.

The report also said that Anderson was not medically checked by jail staff after returning from the hospital.

"She wasn't seen in the time prescribed by our policy," Pelle said. "However, in their defense, she had just been seen by a doctor at the hospital."

According to the sheriff's office, she should have been checked on every 15 minutes. The report noted that deputies and medical personnel were in and out of the area frequently during that time, even if they were not seen explicitly checking on her.

'Every decision has consequences'

The report focused on several other issues, including where and when paramedics pronounced Anderson dead. The paramedic on scene initially wanted to pronounce Anderson dead outside her cell, but sheriff's Sgt. Karmen Koger told them not to do it there.

According to the report, Koger told investigators it was not normal protocol for an inmate to be pronounced dead inside the jail, and requested her body be taken outside.

The paramedic tried to pronounce Anderson dead in the loading bay, but Koger again told her not to because that would require sheriff's deputies to shut down the intake garage as they awaited coroner's investigators, hindering the jail's ability to admit new inmates.

But the paramedic told investigators Anderson could not be taken to the hospital because she was dead and there was no chance of reviving her, so she did ultimately pronounce the death inside the garage.

Pelle said it is actually unusual for an inmate to be moved before being pronounced dead, but said that, in this case, the sergeant had concerns about Anderson's body remaining in the jail common area in front of other inmates.

But he acknowledged that pronouncing her dead in the loading area also created a problem, and that the jail would need to examine its policy on where inmates are pronounced dead.

"The decision to moved her caused a different problem," Pelle said. "Every decision has consequences. This is one of those train and learn and do better next time sort of scenarios."

The other issue that inmates repeatedly brought up was Genova, and how disruptive inmates can have a negative affect on other inmates. But Pelle said there was not much the jail could do to address that.

"We certainly do have loud, disruptive inmates, and they do tend to get on the nerves of all the other inmates," Pelle said. "I'm not sure what you do about that. It's a jail. That's where they end up."

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